44 ON SAFARI 



lion could still be lying in so small a bush without my 

 seeing it. They must, I thought, have slipped away 

 unobserved, and I was walking on almost carelessly 

 until within ten yards of the right-hand bush, when 

 Elmi suddenly seized my arm, pointing the rifle he 

 carried into the base of the bush, and hissed, " See ! see ! 

 the lion ! Shoot — him spring ! " Once more I must admit 

 that I could see nothing. Strain my eyes as I would, 

 I could distino'uish nothinsr like a lion in that bush — 

 nothing beyond a very small patch of monotone in the 

 further corner. Yet Elmi was so positive, and the bush 

 so small and so near, that I decided, rather recklessly — 

 and perhaps from some sense of shame that a black man 

 should be so superior in eyesight — to fire. There was 

 no mistaking the response — a growl more savage than 

 ever I had heard in my life before. I also saw, through 

 the thick smoke from the Paradox, the electric con- 

 vulsion with which the beast pulled itself together for a 

 sj^ring. That movement disclosed the position of the 

 head and shoulder, and before there was any time for 

 mischief I got the second Inillet well in behind the 

 shoulder. That knocked out any idea of fight, and the 

 beast, still growling but mortally sick, crawled out 

 beyond. I now saw it was a lioness. Elmi handed me 

 the '450, and a third bullet, raking forward from the 

 stern, stretched her among the grass. My first ball was 

 in the ribs amidships, the second high on shoulder. 



AYliile rushing; forward to examine the beast, and in 

 the excitement of the moment utterly forgetting the 

 second lion in the other bush, now behind us, 1 was 

 promptly reminded by shouts and two rapidly-fired 

 shots in that direction. Turning round, I was just in 

 time to see this second beast, also a lioness, bound out, a 

 yellow streak, from the thick covert, growlino; as the first 

 had done. On seeing me she stopped dead, standing 

 with head erect among the green rushes by the lake-shore, 

 and looking over her shoulder towards us. I remember 

 seeing her white teeth as she commenced another growl 

 — she was only twenty yards away — but that movement 



